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You could say humanity is defined by more or less, as a tale of two cities. Anyone remember reading that classic book? I think I read it about 40 something years ago in grade school. The tale of two cities here, has to do with what would be known by Augustine and the early reformers as two kingdoms. The first kingdom is the world, and the other, is the Kingdom of God. We are called to survive essentially in both. We are called to be civically, ethically accountable towards neighbor in matters of the world as well as most importantly we are called to be spiritually accountable to God through a willingness of the heart to be shaped towards the righteousness, God seeks for us to develop.
The temporal world of the self is overfed by the
temptations available around us, in this one earthly life. Some of the early
reformers, actually took the Gospel’s view of the two Kingdoms quite literally
in wondering if the ruler of the world is God’s adversary—Satan. That’s a
difficult thing for us to think about, still.
The problem of evil, being tempted and justifying it becomes an
intellectual battle masked today, by politics and divisiveness. It seems harder and harder to muster up that
energy for a faith that can move the great obstacle of this, out of our
path. Graceless behavior, in the form of
mistrust, hostility and turning away from being a listening presence, become
easier when we think we are “protecting” ourselves.
Sometimes the act of protecting ourselves does more harm
than good, to the truth that needs to be revealed. Today’s scene with the Pharisees is just
that. They are playing once again, a
political game with Jesus in seeing if they can trap him in saying something
against the Romans and their governance.
Jesus in a very clever way clearly defines God’s priorities. Yes we are in this world and it does have
things we are called to be accountable to.
We also, most importantly, to which the Pharisees could never see, we have
a spiritual priority of being humbly accountable to God. This call to accountability would be what we
would understand today as living conscientiously towards being a freely
responsible servant of Christ.
‘The Bondage of the Will,’ was probably one of the most
important books to come out of the Protestant Reformation which is what we’ll
be celebrating its 500th anniversary next Sunday. The Bondage of the
Will is a classic book to talk about humanity’s struggle with willfully caving
into temptations the world bombards us with or willingly finding a new sense of
freedom by choosing to be spiritually accountable to God and neighbor. This
accountability would be nicknamed in future generations as the “Protestant work
ethic.” Does this really still exist
today? I think that’s hard to say because of where we’ve advanced to, hasn’t really
gone in the direction God would’ve hoped for us to. We’ve advanced in technology, intellectualism
and self-oriented concerns, which perhaps have made us go backwards,
truthfully, in socially and spiritually advancing as a people of God.
Being or owning up to the notion of being a people of God
doesn’t just mean coming to church. But
that’s where the institution of “church” has failed the early discipleship goal
of spreading, living truly into the Good News.
Churches abroad battle with defining their communal efforts in the world
to be a “hub” of all things by and for the Gospel. It was really nice to talk the other day
about planning, building towards what ministries we could open up to once we
get a new building. As delightful as
that conversation was, what we must not forget is that we are called to be the
church in our hearts first. There’s no
building or steeple and people there…
This is the most important beginning place, however.
The last several weeks I have been investigating
different communities’ mid-week or Saturday services to see how they think or
imagine themselves as a central hub of “being and doing,” church. Some churches I visited were mega-churches
with elaborate programs literally involving every day of the week. How wonderful in some senses! I remember when I first came to the church of
the pastor I would study and serve with for nearly 8 years, I was amazed at
what he got going there. St. Philip’s
was by no means a big church, in fact, before he came to serve there, they were
nearly on the verge of closing. Within
three years before Phil & I came to join there, he had a study going on
almost every night of the week as well as a Saturday service and a second
contemporary service on Sundays. This
church was only a little bit bigger than ours but not by much.
What was it that made the difference? What made this
“little church that could,” so much greater than that to live into becoming
“Faithfully connected to serve?” Basically, hard work and an attitude of
gratitude is what made the difference. A
note of trivia there, the saying, “the little church that could…” was St.
Philip’s former marketing statement…
After the vision committee meetings, we came up with the statement of: “Faithfully
Connected to Serve.” What a difference
that made! It was like night and day.
This logo you see here would be used with lots of different marketing materials
and yes, with pictures of the church and its activities… What was very important about doing this, is
returning to some important themes from all of today’s scriptures. God is here and God is now, as the Psalmist
says, and we do need to discover new ways of not only celebrating God’s
presence in the world today but become a true sanctuary of that 2nd
Kingdom—the City of God.
Reflecting, reaping, sharing the Kingdom of God needs us
to work on that internal city first—our hearts.
This image and few words came after everyone on the committee
prayerfully reflected in their hearts what this community meant to them, and
most obviously, it went way beyond the people and the steeple… This is what all who participated in St.
Phil’s vision committee came to develop.
This was by no means, an easy task for Pastor Dawson, people debated him
and challenged every little thing he tried to do to help them grow. By the time he retired and we embarked on the
journey of beginning to plant the Gathering for Christ Church, they grew from
something like 40 to almost 200 members.
The church he served before St. Phil’s, he served for 23 years. That church was in the same boat but grew to
something like 1500 members.
Putting numbers aside, commitment, graciousness, trust
and truly an amazing faith, is what was the fire that empowered Pastor Dawson
to move those worldly obstacles out of the way and build up a spiritual
presence, place to gather and truly grow from.
I have been recounting these wonderful memories of growing, in hopes
that you can hear me, truly, that I intend on following this path myself. Re-planting is hard, but it’s even harder
when you can’t see or recognize the daily battle we all undertake between the
rule of the Kingdom of the world or striving for the Kingdom of God. They say the city is a jungle and living some
14 years proper in a big city, it does toughen you up! Spiritually as well, this is case for all
churches today.
We are a hub of many individuals coming together to be in
common mission and commitment towards a greater end. Jesus once said a few Sundays’ lection back,
that, “the last will be first, and the first will be last. “ What is First
Congregational Church last in contemplating, praying about? What is First Congregational Church truly the
first or number one about? Don’t answer
that now, but take it into your hearts and think about what it really means for
you? What is God calling your heart to
contribute to our church family here?
Are you ready for it? Are you willing to?
I’ll leave you with one last story, Henry was a fellow
student at the beginning of my seminary journey at the first school I studied
at. He and his wife had been studying
there for something like 8 years already, when I started there. He was someone who got tossed back and forth
into the political ugliness of candidacy, so much so, that he started to give
up. In fact, he did give up, and after
12 years of trying, he packed up all of he and his wife’s things and moved to
Washington state to write books and sell life insurance. I have occasionally seen a blip or two about
how he’s doing out there and I can’t put my finger on it per say, but there is
some deep seeded emptiness, he is hiding behind his humor and stories.
Were those in charge of the candidacy process he
struggled with like the Pharisees in some senses; where they weren’t willing to
see his spiritual potential? I wonder
and have prayed for him and others who may have succumbed to the same abusive
system of “filtering” potential pastors.
It’s human nature to be inclined to put people to the test, to be judge,
jury and prosecutor… Kingdom of God
thinking, however, looks beyond the self to see the light of God in each of us
to truly understand, see great potential.
St. Paul in this amazing letter, we’ve heard from this morning, of
pastoral thankfulness and encouragement, is beaming a great light of hope into
the hearts and ears of the Thessalonians, that they moved beyond their former
ways of understanding life to see and realize their Kingdom potential.
Yes, you’ve heard that before, Kingdom steps, Kingdom
thinking, the Evangelicals have a lot to teach people about living into
empowered discipleship. In fact, being
open-minded to many Protestant traditions, there will always be something to
learn from everyone. The Pharisees were
unwilling to listen, unwilling to learn and were too absorbed into their
politicking to serve the God they fawned their showy piety, to all upon. This still happens today, churches aren’t to
be elite social clubs or mere fellowships, they are to be dynamic,
mutually-encouraging teams of people working for the mission of the Gospel
together and out into the world beyond the hub of what the church is supposed
to be. As Pastor Dawson would say at
times and I would have to agree—we are truly here to gather, then we are called
to scatter with the Gospel in our hearts and the Holy Spirit to motivate our
hands and feet to action.
Let us Pray,
Loving and Gracious God,
Help us to truly see those boundaries and challenges
between both Kingdoms
Help us to be strong in faith while we work in the
Kingdom of the world
Help us to continue to grow spiritually accountable to
Your Kingdom’s mission and goal for us
Help us to bring forth the City of God in the here and
now of our efforts.
Thank You Lord for all You have encouraged us to see and
become,
In Your Name, we pray
AMEN
October 22nd,
2017; Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 24; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon By:
Reverend Nicole A.M. Collins, OSST
Psalm 96:1-13;
Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22
The link below is to this sermon's deliver at First Congregational Church at 9:30am
https://youtu.be/ECoBz2Q7Q4w
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